“The city is a key business hub for China entrepreneurs, as well as a family office nexus,” Vincent Chui, head of Morgan Stanley’s Asia wealth operations said, noting that clients prefer Singapore ‘a little bit more’ than Hong Kong as a base for family offices as the latter is where the wealthy operate more on an individual basis.

The wealth manager is aiming to hire 50 relationship managers in Hong Kong and Singapore over the next three years to bring the total headcount to 150 in a move to capitalise on growing high-net worth wealth.

The Asia-Pacific region is home to the largest population of high-net worth individuals at 6.2 million in 2017 with a wealth of US$21.59t, data from Capgemini show. In China alone, there are around 373 billionaire entrepreneurs, PwC and UBS said in their latest wealth report.

“We would like to position ourselves as a firm-wide partner to our customers,” Chui explained. When an entrepreneur looks to do an IPO, the company will bring in bankers from both the investment banking and wealth sides to help the client figure out how the listing would affect their finances and family needs, he said.